1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the image forming method by an electrophotographic mode, a method of successively carrying out charging, exposure, development, and transfer using an electrophotographic photoreceptor is known. In recent years, such image forming method begins to be applied to part of the printing region with the progress of digitalization or colorization, and in particular, practical applications in the graphic arts market including on-demand printing is remarkable. The graphic arts market as referred to herein means the whole of production-related business markets including creative prints having the small number of copies as in woodblock prints, tracing or copying of originals such as handwritings and pictures, and prints by mass production called reproduction and is objective to categories and sections of business related to the production of prints.
Also, practical application of the image forming method using an electrophotographic mode is remarkable in the short run printing market. In this short run printing market, technologies targeting not only monochromic printing but also coloring printing while applying characteristics of plateless printing of the electrophotographic mode (the device is represented by Fuji Xerox's Color DoucTech 60) are developed, and large progresses in image quality, paper correspondence, product price, price per sheet, etc. are being found (Journal of the Imaging Society of Japan, the Image Society of Japan, 2001, Vol. 40, No. 2).
In these graphic arts market and short run market, a higher definition of image quality is demanded, and coated papers having a pigment and an adhesive coated thereon for the purpose of preventing penetration of printing inks into paper and coated papers having high white paper gloss for the purpose of enhancing apparent sharpness are used in many cases (for example, JP-A-5-341553 and JP-A-2000-66437).